Some Android Wear apps are most useful when they are always available to the user, even at a glance. Now, with Google Play Services 8.1, the Google Maps Android API supports ambient mode, the API that provides always-on capabilities. In ambient mode, the map adjusts its style to provide a simplified, low-color rendering of the map. All markers, objects, and UI controls disappear, keeping the map on the screen while letting the user know that it is not currently ready to accept user input. An important advantage is the camera position and zoom level are retained, thus keeping the user’s context within the map.

The screenshot below show how maps appear in interactive mode and in ambient mode.

To implement ambient mode in your maps, follow these steps:

Set your your targetSDKVersion to 22 or higher

Add the following dependencies to build.gradle for your app to add the wearable support library.

In the onCreate() method of your activity, call the setAmbientEnabled() method. This tells the framework that the app should enter ambient mode rather than returning to the watch face.

Set your map to support ambient mode. You can do this by setting the attribute map:ambientEnabled="true" in the activity's XML layout file, or programmatically by setting GoogleMapOptions.ambientEnabled(true). This informs the API to pre-load necessary map tiles for ambient mode.